A Global Compact for Migration to fight myths and foster cooperation. From signatures to policies?

A Global Compact for Migration to fight myths and foster cooperation. From signatures to policies?

On 10 and 11 December, more than 160 governments gathered in Marrakesh to adopt the Global Compact for a Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. According to the UN Special Representative for International Migration Louise Arbour, this represents a triumph for multilateralism, as signatory states have chosen to cooperate and to show solidarity in the way they deal with migration. This is also a victory for fact over myth, as the Migration pact aims to provide a regular and extensive analysis of the migration phenomenon - from root causes, numbers and patterns to mobility benefits– to achieve sound policy making. Finally, it stipulates that migrants’ human rights shall be respected at each stage of their travel: from their departure, to their journey across lands and sees, to their arrival.

Addressing the countries who did not sign the Compact, especially those who have withdrawn between the 2016 New York declaration and the Marrakesh signature, Ms Arbour called on them to reconsider their position.

Ironically, while the Compact’s objectives are to fight myths and increase information about migration, the states that have chosen to pull out have created more myths around it. They claim the Compact would increase migration flows, decrease state sovereignty and increase the burden of dealing with the migrants’ arrival. The Pact actually encourages states to work together, to help those receiving the highest numbers of migrants and assist each other in integrating newcomers.

SOLIDAR believes this pact is an important step forward towards making migration safer and respecting migrants’ human rights. But now it is time for multilateralism to move on from words and signatures to concrete action.

States need to use the regular information provided in the framework of this compact to create sound policies for migrants’ integration. From an EU perspective, the Member States’ commitment to cooperate must lead them to revise the Dublin II regulation that currently leaves Italy, Greece and Spain to deal on their own with migrants’ arrivals. Finally, the only way to make migrants’ journeys safer is to open channels of regular migration.